Anyone else have trouble creaming butter and sugar in a kitchenaid?

Recipes always say to beat softened butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. I can never get this in my kitchenaid. Butter and sugar form a thick paste that coats the walls of the bowl where the beater barely touches, meaning I have to scrape the sides down every few seconds. First I thought maybe my butter wasn't softened enough, but today I tried again making sure my butter was properly softened, same results. Anyone else have this problem?

You want to use the paddle, not the beater, to cream butter and sugar in your kitchenaid. If you're using comparatively small amounts of butter and sugar there may not be enough total mass for the mixer to process it properly. There are paddles on the market, designed for the KA stand mixer, that scrape the sides of the bowl as they oscillate. I don't have one but I am acquainted with others who use them that speak highly of their efficiency. You may be interested in this information:

No, you do not need to change blades. In fact, I almost never stop the mixer to scrape down the bowl bc the beater blade does such a superb job. I just let the mixer keep beating away as I add the addn'l ingredients (adjusting the beating speed as necessary).

Sorry, should have said - I'm using the paddle not the wire whisk. But not the super scraper paddle, which looks good!Reading that link (thanks), I'm thinking maybe my sugar is too coarse. On the other hand, I don't have a problem when beating with a hand held electric beater. I'm doing usual quantities for a cake or a batch of cookes, 120g of butter and sugar, for example.

you need to beat the butter first separately until it is relatively fluffy then add the sugar gradually.this is a basic operation in this mixer and there should be no difficulty. If the butter is too cold and hard it will not do it properly - the steel bowl gets cold and the butter will tend to adhere to it. - on the other hand, the butter should not be melty. My guess is that your butter is too cold - let it warm up until it is soft to the touch with your finger and it should work fine. If it srtarts to do this, you could wrap the bowl with a warm towl to bring the temp up a little.

I have in the oven right now a batch of sugar cookies it seems as if you are using "granulated" sugar. You should be using powdered confectionary sugar. Beat the softened butter till it is fluffy, then add sifted powdered sugar into the creamed butter and cream them together till it is well incorporated before you add in the remaining ingredients.

You need to use whatever kind of sugar the recipe calls for, otherwise it will effect the texture of the baked good. You don't want to just substitute confectioners sugar which has cornstarch in it with granulated sugar.

I put my granulated sugar in the blender. I have a little one with 3 different cup sizes. Sometimes I have the blended sugar already prepared. The structure depends on how long I blend. It can look like confectioners sugar.The advantage is that the granulated sugar more easy combines with the butter en there is no cornstarch added. Tina